Peter Scaife

Peter Scaife, who has died aged 90, was awarded an MC for conspicuous
gallantry during the Battle of Monte Cassino.

5:12PM BST 06 Aug 2012

On the night of March 15 1944, Scaife was commanding a company of the 1st Battalion 6th Rajputana Rifles (1/6 RR). He was ordered to capture an objective on the slopes of Monastery Hill, close to the monastery itself.

Peter Scaife

Earlier operations had not cleared all the enemy from his route, and his men came under heavy shelling, causing many casualties and forcing them to withdraw. At first light Scaife reorganised his company and spent the day close to the German positions preparing for another attempt.

That night, another company of his unit joined him. When its commander became a casualty, Scaife took charge of both companies and led them in an attack. After they had reached their objective, they were counter-attacked several times. Each time they drove the enemy off.

Finally, they ran out of ammunition. It proved impossible to resupply or reinforce them, and another determined counter-attack compelled them to pull back. By then the company was greatly reduced by the losses that it had taken and it was deployed in a defensive role.

Two nights later, in the early hours of the morning, the Germans launched a series of fierce attacks against the remnants of the company. Scaife was involved in bitter hand-to-hand fighting and, during one period, grabbed a Bren gun and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy.

The citation for his MC stated that his leadership and bravery had played a large part in the holding of a vitally important feature.

Peter Angus Scaife was born in Plymouth on August 23 1921 and educated at Tonbridge, where he won his colours at cricket, rugby and hockey. He enlisted in the Army in December 1940, reported to the barracks in Aldershot and embarked for Bombay the following month.

Scaife and his fellow cadets were sent by troop train to the military college at Bangalore for their officers’ training course. The college had been modelled along the lines of the pre-war Sandhurst. The new arrivals were called Gentleman Cadets and shared comfortable quarters, a well-­appointed Mess and a servant.

The training was rigorous. Fieldcraft, weapons training and bayonet drill were practised in blistering heat on the Agram Plain (soon nicknamed “Agony Plain”). Instruction was given in the Urdu language as fluency was essential for all who served in Indian regiments.

In September 1941 Scaife was commissioned into the 1/6 RR and posted to the Western Desert the following year. In December 1943 the unit moved to Italy as part of 7th Indian Infantry Brigade, 4 Indian Division.

After the Battle of Cassino, in April 1944 the battalion was moved to Orsogna, south-west of Pescara. It then went to Palestine on guard duties before returning to India in September. In five years of hard fighting in Abyssinia, North Africa and Italy it had won 42 decorations.

Scaife retired from the Indian Army in 1946. He had business interests in Syria and the Lebanon between 1947 and 1949 and then had a spell working for the Anglo-Persian Oil Company at Abadan.

In 1952 he went to Calcutta and worked for McNeill & Barry in personnel management before returning to England 11 years later and joining the TI Group as personnel manager and subsequently pensions manager.

In retirement in Sussex he took an active part in his community, including driving the outpatient bus for the Crowborough Hospital. His wife was a talented glass engraver.

Peter Scaife married, in 1945, Daphne Bennett. She predeceased him, and he is survived by their son and daughter.